Latest Dharamsala Stories

Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo [By John Duce] Beijing, June 30 Kyodo - A group of envoys from the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing on Monday for talks with Chinese government officials aimed at easing tension after Tibet and neighbouring provinces were hit by riots earlier this year. The group of five representatives sent by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader left Beijing airport from a VIP exit without answering questions from reporters. Officials from the...

By Benjamin Kang LimBEIJING -- An official Chinese commentary accused the Dalai Lama on Wednesday of collaborating with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, rejecting the Tibetan leader's overtures and casting a shadow over fence-mending talks.The Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has proposed a "Middle Way" policy seeking autonomy but not independence for Tibet.But the online edition of the China Daily, the government's...

LHASA, China (Reuters) - Days after China bound itself closer to Tibet with a new railway, a senior official accused the Dalai Lama, the region's exiled spiritual leader, of seeking to split China and play politics with religion. Champa Phuntsok, chairman of the Tibetan government which rules the region under Beijing's close watch, said the Dalai Lama's claim that he sought only greater autonomy for the mountain-bound region was insincere. "So far, we have only seen the changes in...

By Lindsay Beck BEIJING (Reuters) - First passengers on the world's highest railway were set to leave Beijing on Saturday bound for Tibet, a symbol of power and progress to China that critics say spells cultural and environmental loss to the Tibetan people. The train departs in the evening and arrives in Lhasa 48 hours later, after a 4,000-km (2,500-mile) journey at altitudes reaching more than 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) on the Tibetan plateau, the first rail link between China and the...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Two former Tibetan political prisoners who were part of a group known as the "singing nuns" have left the mountainous Chinese region and gone into exile in India, an advocacy group said on Wednesday. Rigzin Choekyi, who served 12 years in prison and Lhundrub Zangmo, who served nine years, left overland and traveled through Nepal before reaching India, where Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, leads a government in exile. "Both Rigzin Choekyi and Lhundrub...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Envoys of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who has been branded a separatist by Beijing, said fundamental differences remained after talks in China on allowing more autonomy for the Buddhist region. It was the fifth round of negotiations since contacts between China and the Dalai Lama's representatives resumed in 2002, but there have so far been no concrete results of a process the Chinese government does not even openly acknowledge exists. "There is a...

By Lindsay BeckBEIJING -- Envoys of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, arrived in China on Wednesday for secretive talks on allowing more autonomy for the Buddhist region, Tibet's government-in-exile said.It was the fifth round of talks since contacts between China and the Dalai Lama's representatives resumed in 2002, but there have so far been no concrete results of a process the Chinese government does not even openly acknowledge exists."Our ultimate hope is to resolve the issue...

By Lindsay Beck BEIJING (Reuters) - Several Tibetan monks have been detained for opposition to a Chinese political campaign they were forced to participate in, sparking a rare mass protest, two advocacy groups said on Thursday. The Dharamsala-based Center for Human Rights and Democracy said five monks at the Drepung monastery, on the outskirts of the capital Lhasa, were expelled from the monastery and detained after refusing to sign a document denouncing the Dalai Lama as a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Confidence-building talks between Tibetans and China have done little to ease a "very repressive" atmosphere in Chinese-ruled Tibet, the Dalai Lama said on Tuesday. The 70-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader and head of an India-based Tibetan government-in-exile is visiting Washington for a conference on science and meditation. He is slated to meet President George W. Bush on Wednesday. Private envoys of the Dalai Lama have had four meetings with Chinese...

BEIJING (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who visits China next week, must push Beijing to deal directly with the Dalai Lama, an international rights group said on Friday. The same day, hundreds of Tibetans sang and danced in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala to mark the 45th anniversary of the founding of their so-called government-in-exile there. The London-based Free Tibet Campaign called on Blair to press Chinese President Hu Jintao to meet the Dalai Lama and...